


Sailor, Pirate, Privateer, Spy

by Jennifer-Oksana (JenniferOksana)



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Betrayal, F/M, Falling In Love, Het, Long, Original Character(s), Spies & Secret Agents, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:58:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5809003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenniferOksana/pseuds/Jennifer-Oksana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How James Norrington wins a most unique bride and finds loves in the doing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Miss Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner are wed.

**Chapter One: A Wedding**

To the surprise of many in Port Royal, the marriage of William Turner and Elizabeth Swann was the social event of the season. Society supposed that after throwing over Commodore Norrington, second only to Governor Swann in esteem and respect in the town, Miss Swann might marry quietly. But as Mrs. Harriet Wilson, the premiere woman of Port Royal society, said of Miss Swann, "she's too fond of her own way to ever be done with it, and there's no one who'd dare curb her."

So it was with her wedding. Weatherby Swann doted on his only child, as did her husband-to-be, and no detail of the ceremony or the festivities reflected that Mr. Turner was a blacksmith with uncertain bloodlines, nor that Elizabeth Swann had been abducted by pirates not four months before the wedding, and sailed with them, becoming inappropriately intimate with one Captain Jack Sparrow, whom Commodore Norrington pursued constantly in his quest to rid the Caribbean of the pirate threat.

Miss Swann wore an embroidered gown of fine cotton and lawn, done once again in the robe a la francaise fashion. The stays emphasized that Miss Swann had a properly maidenly waist, and Miss Helena Wilson, eldest daughter of Mrs. Harriet, described in awe how neat the stitches on the cotton were.

"The rosebuds looked as though they were painted on!" Miss Helena told her friends in awed whispers at the wedding feast. "'Twas a sumptuous gown, fit for a lady."

Will Turner, despite being of lesser folk, looked a fit match for Miss Swann, and it was held quite a shame that he was of sailing stock. He cut a fine figure in Port Royal society, and his master had admitted in his absence that the finest work of his shop came from Turner's capable hands. Many of the prosperous tradesmen were impressed by this statement; clearly, far from being a romantic fancy of a spoilt young woman, Will Turner had prospects. True, Elizabeth Swann married beneath her station, but none could imagine Norrington wedding her after the scandal. Weatherby Swann, the merchant class said sagely, had been wise in allowing the union of Elizabeth and Turner. Turner's dubious inheritances and his genuine talent as a swordsmith and iron-worker would allow him to rise rapidly in Port Royal, and the children of the union would be invited to the best homes and drawing-rooms in the Caribbean.

Gov. Weatherby Swann, in fact, had plotted no such genius. He had hoped for Miss Swann to marry Norrington, not for rank, but because James Norrington was the finest man he knew. Moreover, he allowed Elizabeth to wed Will because it was her heart's desire and because Turner was a good man, if prone to dramatic gestures in passionate moods. He was truly a kind gentleman, valuing his daughter's happiness before all practical concerns. His joy at the wedding was not feigned; he found great comfort in the smile on Elizabeth's pretty face as she presided with her boy-pirate husband.

One who would not have found such comfort was notably absent from the proceedings; despite all protests from Governor Swann, his daughter, and Will Turner, James Norrington politely declined to attend the wedding. His stated reason, of course, was that he was still in pursuit of Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl, but Port Royal and the Swanns knew Norrington was little interested in seeing his first love wed to another.

While this was indeed true, Norrington found himself avoiding the wedding for more pragmatic reasons. He had long since tired of the sympathies of Port Royal and those ladies who assumed that his heart was forever broken, or that its only salve would be finding a woman as spirited, clever, and pretty as Elizabeth who requited his affections. Mrs. Harriet Wilson had appointed herself his chaperon, and despite Miss Helena's absolute disinterest in Norrington, continually threw them together. So it was fair to say that Norrington avoided Elizabeth Swann's wedding not because he wished her ill, but because he could no longer bear Helena Wilson's jibes and Mrs. Wilson's kindly but constant interference.

Norrington thus found himself pursuing a French privateer near Saint-Domingue on the nuptial day, the spray of salt water in his eyes and hair, coat cast aside as he called to the steersman, "Hard a-port! Give me more speed, by God! Give me more speed!" and 'tis safe to say that he had little thought of women or love at all. The war with the French had heated up, and French privateers and pirates in league with the French navy trawled the Caribbean waters with alarming frequency. The commodore suspected they sought out weakness in the British navy's line, but the enlistment of pirates confused Norrington. There was little sense in encouraging privateering, given that it had taken the best part of a generation to reduce the threat of the cutthroats.

"They search for something," Norrington told Gillette and Groves over supper, gnawing on a biscuit and sipping at a sharp and vinegary wine. "I doubt it is just battle they seek."

"Entirely possible, sir," Groves said. "Have you considered hiring a privateer to infiltrate their plans? Perhaps Sparrow..."

Norrington gazed at the man as though he'd gone mad. "Even if I were to dirty my ships and my fort with those sea-dogs, the last man I'd work with is Sparrow."

"He is a clever one, sir," Gillette added. "Dastardly clever."

"And that is **why** I've no interest in working with the man," Norrington said with a tone that brooked no opposition. "He would turn on us in the middle of an operation, without thought to the consequence. I'll not work with him."

"Aye, sir," the officers agreed, and the mood stayed decidedly somber the rest of the evening. Two days later, the Excelsior arrived in Port Royal, a town abuzz with gossip.

"Have you heard, sir?" one of the sailors asked when Norrington disembarked. "They say Governor Swann's to send his daughter and her young man off to Virginia! Fine way to clear the scandal from the air, innit?"

Norrington gaped, dumbstruck, by the cheek of the man. "I have been at sea nearly a fortnight," he said with the tatters of his dignity. "I have little time for gossip."

The gossip was quickly proven true, though hardly for the reason of scandal. The Turners had no interest in staying in Port Royal and living as blacksmiths; Elizabeth had taken her dowry and calmly told her father that she and Will had decided to emigrate to Philadelphia. That good man was nearly devastated by the news, pleading with both Turners to stay in Jamaica. He could not understand why they would leave, and no amount of pleading would loosen their tongues.

Privately, Norrington himself wondered if the taint of piracy did not lay heavily on young Turners' shoulders, but he aired no opinion of the affair.

On a fine morning a month later, Will and Elizabeth Turner left Port Royal for Philadelphia, to the tears of Governor Swann, the good wishes of Commodore Norrington, and the consternation of the town at large. What could have befallen the young couple, that they would so quickly abandon home and family for the rudeness of Pennsylvania?

The gossip and speculation raged on for nearly a month, until a new target for Port Royal's interest made herself known, very simply, by the arrival of a ship from London by name of the Goldendown.

Had James Norrington known that the Goldendown's cargo would cause him more surprise than Elizabeth's marriage and her removal to the remotest of colonies, he would have laughed.

But 'twas true, and you will shortly see what befell him and the unsuspecting citizens of Port Royal, hopefully to your amusement.

 


	2. Lady Saville

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The introduction of one Lady Julia Saville

**Chapter Two: Lady Saville**

Now, of course, the matter of interest is the Goldendown and its arrival in Port Royal. There is little to say; a merchantman from London and Portsmouth, it had stopped briefly in Cuba to trade part of its cargo and pick up more passengers. A fine ship captained by a stout man, it was a regular visitor to the harbor, and there had been no expectation of much deviation from this state of affairs.

Goldendown's cargo was largely cloth, tea, and other trade goods that brightened the eyes of the merchants and ladies of Port Royal. Its passengers included the usual adventurers and men of limited means seeking wealth in the Caribbean, but it also included a highly unusual passenger (and the source of the interest of this tale), one Lady Saville, a London gentlewoman who had come to Jamaica with no discernible purpose, but a great deal of money, high spirits, and a letter of introduction to Governor Swann, who promptly asked the lady to stay as his chaperoned guest in his echoingly empty home.

Lady Saville promptly acquiesced, and rumor immediately flew that she meant to become the second Mrs. Swann, especially now that Mrs. Turner and her husband had embarked to Virginia with her inheritance in hand. While many proper matrons found it a mean trick, as many young women of Port Royal were sympathetic. Governor Swann was a kind man, and he deserved someone charming in his life, especially after the cruel trick Elizabeth had played upon him, marrying beneath her and then deserting her father.

Neither matrons nor maidens needed worry; Governor Swann himself had no interest in a second wife, though he allowed that "Lady Julia" was as pleasant a person to spend an evening with as any.

"She is hardly a nuisance at all," Governor Swann recounted to Commodore Norrington after the third day of Lady Saville's stay. "She is much concerned with writing and geography, and often interviews me about my knowledge of the isles of the Caribbean, their climate and features and such. I told her that she would be better served by asking you these things."

Norrington suppressed a wry smile. Ever since Elizabeth had 'thrown him over,' as gossip went, Governor Swann had been most solicitous in trying to find his friend a suitable wife, quite possibly in vain. He found himself disinterested in pursuing love, not when Jack Sparrow roamed the waters freely. But Weatherby Swann was an old and valued friend, so he nodded his head.

"Am I invited to supper, then, sir?" he asked.

"When you're at leisure, James," Governor Swann replied. "I have told Lady Julia all about you, and she seems most keen on your knowledge of these waters."

They quickly agreed to an evening two days hence for the time, Governor Swann promising to invite Reverend Percy Dimmesdale and his new wife, Emmaline, to help balance out the party. Norrington, who was largely indifferent to the Dimmesdales, acquiesced readily, and on the appointed evening, arrived in comfortable but proper garb for an evening spent with friends.

He was quickly ushered to the drawing room, where Reverend Dimmesdale and Governor Swann were enjoying a sample of Virginia tobacco, and Mrs. Dimmesdale was showing a young woman in a white floral gown her prized needlework. Both women looked up when Commodore Norrington was announced, and to his surprise, his gaze caught the young woman's first.

James Norrington found himself speechless. If this was the Governor's "Lady Julia" (and he could not believe it was any other), then he had been sorely mistaken in his conception of her, having expected a mousy younger sister of an impoverished gentleman, selling his goods at the dearest price. Instead, a tall woman with sleek brown hair and cat-like green eyes met his glance; a woman whose red lips curved into a demure smile at his discomfiture, wit evident in her very expression.

"Commodore Norrington!" Governor Swann said, clearly unaware that Norrington was already enchanted by the lovely woman who gazed at him so frankly. "Let me introduce you to Lady Julia Saville. Lady Julia Saville, this is Commodore James Norrington, a particular friend of mine and the finest officer in the Caribbean."

He ushered Lady Julia up to where Norrington stood; belatedly, Norrington inclined his head and took the woman's hand. "I've heard so much about you, Lady Saville," he said, feeling doltish and pole-axed.

"Not nearly as much as I of you, Commodore," she said in a rich voice, and under the Governor's very eye, she winked at Norrington in a way most unbecoming a lady. Norrington found his footing in that unexpected gesture, smiling at Governor Swann and then Lady Julia.

"I've heard you are fond of geography?" he asked as the Governor beamed his approval. Lady Julia nodded demurely.

"I am utterly fascinated by this region, sir," she said in that delightful voice that made Norrington wonder how he had feared ever meeting her. "I've been told you know these seas better than anyone."

"Not quite anyone, Lady Saville," Norrington said self-deprecatingly. "But it is my job to someday surpass Jack Sparrow -- or his crew -- in their knowledge of the Caribbean."

Lady Julia's eyes lit with curiosity and a most beguiling smile crossed her lips. "Oh, do tell us," she said, gesturing at the table where the Dimmesdales sat politely, very kind about their complete obsolescence among the company. "I've never heard of this Jack Sparrow."

"Then you're very fortunate," Norrington said wryly. "Once you make his acquaintance, it's not one you can be rid of."

She laughed cheerfully, the gesture crinkling her eyes and rouging her cheeks softly. At that moment, Norrington's affections were entirely captured by Lady Saville, and the lady seemed aware of this victory. The blush faded quickly and she set her fingers firmly on his wrist.

"I'm intrigued," she said softly. "Please tell me more."

It quickly became expected to see Lady Saville and Commodore Norrington walking out together, usually at the fort and near the ships, both the Dauntless and the Interceptor's replacement, the Excelsior. The number of nights Norrington dined at Governor Swann's table outnumbered those he spent in his own home, and the men began to view Lady Saville as Mrs. Norrington, though no marriage had been discussed.

The sailors of Port Royal under Norrington's command were fond of Lady Saville, who not only brought a spring to their commander's step, but asked them many questions about their voyages and adventures. None of them quite understood why a lady would be so fascinated by the details of a seafaring life, but Lady Saville had a way of phrasing things so charmingly that no man questioned why it so fascinated her.

As time passed, it seemed more and more certain that Lady Saville had found a husband, and Commodore Norrington a love who could fill his days and his heart with happiness. Governor Swann was most influential in continuing those rumors. Lady Saville and Commodore Norrington walked together every day, and Lady Saville's first and last dance were always saved for her naval officer.

"When will you ask her, James?" Swann asked Norrington at last, one late evening over cigars and wine. "I am anxious to see you and dear Lady Julia happy at last."

Norrington looked away, his eyes suddenly brim-full of doubt and anxious confessions, which he felt trembling in his heart with unspoken fears. "She seems content to continue as we are," he said at last. "I'm not entirely certain she wishes to wed."

"Nonsense," Swann replied. "All she speaks of is the Caribbean and her affection for you. There is no doubt in my mind that she loves you and will happily agree to be your wife."

Norrington nodded thoughtfully. "Sir, I am largely of your opinion," he said slowly. "But there are moments when my Lady Julia's eyes flash, or she smiles and twirls her skirts, that I wonder if her fondness be love...or merely fancy. I know not why I doubt her...but I do."

"Faugh! I fear, James, that you still worry over Elizabeth's changing tempers," Swann said with the sorrowful wisdom of a man party to a great wrong. "Lady Julia loves you. She will accept your suit."

Norrington paused, thinking of Lady Julia's smile, and her sea-green eyes. Thinking of the boundless curiosity she had for a seagoing life and for the Caribbean. "It seems impossible that any woman could be so fit for my life," he said at last. "Perhaps I have thought overmuch on the topic."

Governor Swann smiled. "Take my advice," he said gently, certain at last he had repaid his friend for Elizabeth's unseemly behavior and that James would be as happy as Elizabeth at last. "Ask the woman. Be as happy as both of you deserve to be."

"I will," Norrington said at last, certain that his luck had changed. "Thank you, Weatherby."

 


	3. Letter of Marque

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jack Sparrow renders affairs into a tempest, as he is prone to do.

In fact, Commodore Norrington's luck had changed, but hardly to his favor. The next four days were as unsettled as any that had passed over Port Royal since the attack of the Black Pearl a year previous. First, a gale blew into port; not a hurricane, but a stiff wind-and-rain-storm that kept everyone quite indoors and James going over the damaged areas of the fort with a pair of nearly human intelligences. Next, Governor Swann took ill from food that had spoiled during the storm, and Norrington's entreaty that Lady Julia spend the day at the fort in his company was met with a hasty note of regret, and that was two days spent pacing.

And on the fourth day, Jack Sparrow blew into Port Royal with a surprising cargo.

Sail was sighted near mid-day, and the Black Pearl herself was recognized almost immediately, sending all men to their battle stations and Groves to the Dauntless, as Commodore Norrington had betaken himself to Governor Swann's with a pot of soup his cook had made for him, known among the natives and slaves to be soothing to the stomach. A messenger was immediately dispatched, but Jack Sparrow, as befit a man of his singular gall, did not pay attention to the naval ships and cannon aimed at him and his pirate crew. He tied up at dock and smiled at the harbormaster.

"I've need to speak to your commodore," he said, shaking the man's hand. "There's quite a to-do in the islands and that's his job, innit? To rid the Caribbean of threat?"

The harbormaster allowed that it was. Jack Sparrow nodded gravely.

"Then I must immediately complain to Commodore Norrington, for he's failed to do his job," he said. "Can you direct me to him? Up at the fort, ay?"

"Hardly," said the first, breathless marine to aim a bayonet at the notorious Sparrow. "Everyone knows the commodore's courting up at the gov'nor's house today."

A most curious expression crossed the pirate's face. Later asked, the marine and the harbormaster said that it was quite like surprise, a little bit of amusement, and lashings of contempt.

"Well, then," said Jack Sparrow, recovering himself. "Then I shall finish all my errands in one visit, and gents, that's as efficient as any man may hope. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

He pulled a ratty parchment from his blouse, waved it at both men, and smiled at their discomfort as he trotted into Port Royal a free man.

Meanwhile, Norrington was finding that Lady Julia was behaving as hastily as her note to him at the fort. Governor Swann's stomach-ache had not improved, despite her refusal to allow any food she herself had not prepared cross his lips, and her words to him were hasty and irritable.

"I cannot in good conscience leave Governor Swann to these layabouts and ninnies when they were the ones who compromised his health in the first place!" she snapped, wiping her brow with a kerchief. "Surely you see that, Norrington."

"Of course I do, Lady Julia," Norrington responded, handing the pot of soup to a bewildered kitchen girl, "But my business is with you and it is urgent. I would hardly threaten the health of a dear friend if it weren't."

Lady Julia sighed, and sat at the rude kitchen table, gesturing grandly for Norrington to join her. Despite her homespun attire and burnt fingers, James found himself utterly besotted with the steely will animating her features, and knew himself to be madly in love.

"Sit, then," she said softly. "And tell me your business."

He sat, and with a boldness he'd learned from his mistakes with Elizabeth, grasped one of Lady Julia's hands between his own. The bewilderment in the lady's eyes was not quite what James had hoped, but he knew she cared for him. He knew it!

"Lady Saville...Julia," he began. "Are you fond of me?"

Idiot! What sort of thrice-damned fool tried to propose marriage after asking a schoolboy question like that? Norrington burnt with shame, but a smile found its way onto Lady Julia's face.

"Oh," she said very quietly. "Yes, James, I am very fond of you, as I'd thought you knew by now."

Relief sank to the very bone, and Norrington took heart. "I'd hoped, but a gentleman never dares to know a lady's heart," he said. "I wish you to know..."

But what Norrington wished was quite spoiled by the maid, Susan, running into the kitchen, screaming hysterically.

"Pirate! Pirate! Oh, sir, oh, m'lady! Pirate! Pirate!" she cried, running presumably to hide from that terror. Norrington groaned, extended a hand to Lady Julia, and helped her to her feet after he gained his feet.

"What nonsense does that creature talk?" Lady Julia asked, taking Norrington's arm quite boldly. "Pirates at the governor's mansion? Tell them to go away, James. We're quite busy."

"Indeed," Norrington agreed, trying to keep a fatuous smile from his face. This proved simple enough, upon seeing Jack Sparrow perched in the sitting room, his boots upon the rug. "I should have guessed. My dear, go call Susan and tell her there's no pirate here to worry over. Just an escaped prisoner come home to roost."

Jack drew himself up to retort, and then caught sight of Lady Julia, who met his curious gaze with frank disapproval. "Where is dear Elizabeth? I heard tell you were sweet-hearting up here again, Commodore, and had hoped Miss Swann had come to her senses."

"Mrs. Turner has emigrated to Philadelphia," Lady Julia said tartly, her arm still linked with Norrington's. "I suppose you're Sparrow?"

Jack eyeballed Lady Julia with a practiced air. "And who are you, madam?" he asked with a smirking familiarity. "Mrs. Norrington? I must say, Commodore, I'm hurt you didn't invite me to the wedding. Especially given the bride's set would be dear to me own heart."

Norrington, with a speed he hadn't realized he had, pulled away from Julia and drew his sword, the point aimed directly at Jack's leering black eyes. "Apologize to Lady Saville," he said icily. "Or I shall kill you where you stand."

"Ah," Jack said with a knowing nod. "Lady Saville, I apologize for my presumption. When's the happy day to be?"

Lady Julia's eyes flashed fire and she drew herself up tall and straight. "Whether 'tis to be at all, 'tis none of your business," she said. "I'll thank you to leave your presumptions to yourself."

"May I dare ask the lovely Lady Saville but two questions?" Jack asked, not flinching from the blade that was bare inches from his eye.

"As you will," Lady Julia replied, sniffing.

"What is your full name, m'lady? And have we met before? I have some vague memory of a woman of your very face. Perhaps in Tortuga...?"

Norrington gave him a good scratch on the cheek for his audacity. "You go too far," he said in a low growl, even as Julia paled chalk-white and trembled.

"My full name is Lady Julia Mary Olivia Danceny Saville," she said in a sing-song. "My people come from London and near Calais. And we have most certainly never met, as I have lived in London my whole life until I emigrated to Port Royal. And now, Mr. Sparrow--"

"Captain Sparrow--" Jack remonstrated bitterly.

"I must ask you to leave this house," Lady Julia finished, ignoring his interruption. "Governor Swann is not well, the Turners are in Philadelphia, and you have insulted me foully. Leave now."

"Love to, luv," Sparrow replied, pulling out the dirty bit of parchment and attaching it to James' sword point. "However, me and your dashing naval lover have a bit of business to attend to, and now's as good a time as any."

Norrington took the parchment and glowered. "A letter of marque? What benighted fool...I shan't even ask. But beyond giving you the right to trawl my waters, what business have we?"

"I'm here to make complaint, Commodore," Sparrow replied. "The French are searching for the Isla del Muerte and tormenting good pirates for its secret absolutely incessantly. The rewards they offer are astronomical...but the chaos they bring to any decent seafaring man...it's disgraceful."

"The French?" Lady Julia asked with a snort. "What brainsick nonsense are you babbling now?"

"Lady Saville," Norrington said, holding up a hand. "I fear that our Captain Sparrow is correct. I've known there has been increased hostility in the seas here...but you claim to have detailed information about this, Sparrow?"

Sparrow nodded, his eyes narrow as he gazed up at a clearly resentful Julia, whose hand clutched an excellent armchair until her knuckles were white. "I'm your man, commodore," he said. "I wish to be left to travel the seas as I will; you'd like to end the French and pirate threats to the Caribbean. Should we work together, I predict an admiral's funny hat in your future. And that ought please you, **Lady** Saville."

"For the commodore's sake, yes," said Lady Julia. "If you'll excuse me, gentlemen...it appears the governor needs to be fed again."

She rushed from the room, and Norrington almost ran after her, but for the curved smile on Sparrow's face. Feeling heavy in his head and a pain in his stomach, Norrington resheathed his sword and sat on the very chair Julia had been clinging to so vituperously.

"Captain Sparrow," he said precisely, biting back his annoyance at the man. "Shall we discuss precisely how to bring out these desirable outcomes, then?"

Jack sprawled out, the smile broadening to include his eyes. "My dear Commodore, 'tis the entire reason I've come to call."

 


	4. Expedition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Norrington and Sparrow must make common cause and Lady Julia is quite vexed to be left in Port Royal.

**Chapter Four: Expedition**

"You cannot leave me so!" Lady Julia raged, her angry footfalls crossing up and down James' private study at the fort, now covered in charts and letters and plans for his unexpected and possibly extended absence from Port Royal. "I will be viewed a fool -- a grasping, silly woman who threw herself at you and ended a fixture in the governor's home. I will not give Miss Helena that triumph."

"Madam...Julia," Norrington said, exasperated. "What triumph does Miss Helena have by my fiancee remaining in Port Royal while I remove the pirate threat? You're being silly."

Lady Julia's eyes widened and Norrington realized his mistake almost immediately. "Silly?" she asked. "So now I am merely a silly woman? Am I but an ornament to accompany your home? A pale imitation of the Elizabeth who sailed on the Black Pearl under the foul captaincy of Barbossa? I don't fear for myself, James."

It would have been compelling, had he not heard three variations on the same argument. "We have argued this since that...Jack Sparrow...left the governor's mansion. In every way, I find you superior to Elizabeth Swann. I love you with every particle of my being, Julia. I have no doubts to your bravery, nor even your seamanship. But this is a secret mission, one that not even my common sailors know of, and as dearly as I would have you by my side at all times, you are unqualified to sail with me," Norrington repeated with the patience of someone who had learnt an argument by heart. "Why must you rail at me so?"

"Why must you deny me?" Julia returned, eyes pricked with tears as she threw herself prettily into a chair. "I wish to prove myself. I know I'm but a woman, and that my jealousy of Elizabeth is ridiculous. But she fought the pirates alongside men, and that is my wish as well."

He wished that he had never made his deals with Sparrow where she could overhear. He wished more that he was not setting forth on this expedition five days after Lady Julia's passionate acceptance of his suit. Most of all, he wished that it was not grossly improper to shut the door to his study and kiss her until the row was spent.

"Julia," he said quietly, flicking his eyes to where the sailors guarded and hid their snickers and lewd comments outside. "I've no doubt you're the equal to ten pirates, but I would never forgive myself if you were hurt on the expedition. If a splinter found itself into your finger..."

"Why, you've one there," Julia said suddenly, rising to her feet. "Let me nurse it...but first, let's shut that door. No commander ought to be seen so minorly wounded."

She nearly ran to the door to kick it closed in the faces of the sailors and lift James' hand to her lips, closing them around the one that had the fictitious splinter. Her breath was hot against it, and her green-grey (were they green-grey or blue-green?) eyes liquid and dark.

"Are you trying to outmaneuver me, Lady Saville?" Norrington asked, drawing his fingers down her throat to the hollow of her collarbone.

"Do you mistrust me so?" Julia replied, eyes heavy-lidded as she smiled at him. "Oh, that's a deep splinter, dearest!"

Gracefully, she put his hand upon her waist, putting a nearly wanton arm around his neck. Norrington's resolve almost wavered; more accurately, he found himself wishing that Jack Sparrow were sunk at the bottom of the Atlantic and a proper engagement and wedding did not take so long.

"You are cheating," Norrington said in a stern whisper, the flat of his hand moving over her spine. "It's very unsporting of you."

"I'm a devious feminine creature," Julia murmured, her lips warm against James's ear. "Intemperate, emotional, and prone to mischief without a firm hand."

There were the occasional moments when Norrington did not wonder if there were irregularities in Lady Julia's background. Despite the implicit innocence in her words, her tone dripped a lascivious seduction, and James found himself rising to the occasion. Lady Julia's wrists were snatched away from his neck and set firmly away from him.

"The Royal Navy is not without some discipline, Lady Saville," Norrington said, attempting to breathe normally.

"Too much," Julia replied, flouncing to the window just as the door rattled with Jack Sparrow's distinct knock. "Let him in, I suppose. That's too deep a splinter for me to pull alone."

He could not even manage a grimace, for Sparrow had pushed his way into the room, surveying Julia's stiff posture and Norrington's ruffled demeanor and coming to the obvious conclusion.

"The lovers are not yet reconciled to their absence, I see," he said. "Lady Julia, a pleasure as always."

"I suppose to you, it is," she said vaguely, nodding to both of them with aristocratic detachment. "Gentlemen, I leave you to your business."

"Lovely woman," Sparrow observed as the door closed behind them with a distinct heaviness. "I'm sure I've met her somewhere. Perhaps a mother or a sister."

"To business, Jack," Norrington said. "We've settled everything except where you and I shall be during the course of the voyages."

Sparrow squirmed, his nervous tics no less ridiculous than they were the first time that they'd met. The man was damnably clever and much better educated than he let on, but his weaselly, shifty manner left Norrington cold. There was no need for the charade between men of equal intelligence.

"We've settled it. Your ship will not be welcome in Tortuga."

"But it's necessary to take the French ship and the Pearl doesn't have that authority," Norrington countered. "After much consideration, I have agreed to your plan. We shall take ship on the Pearl, go into Tortuga and meet with your agents there. After that, we shall then rendezvous with the Excelsior and the Dauntless, and pursue the French ship, the Beau-Regard, from the deck of the Excelsior."

Jack pursed his lips as though he wished to find fault with the plan, but at last he sighed and sprawled out in some gesture of defeat with which Norrington was unfamiliar. "Sterling logic," he offered. "When shall we set out on the expedition?"

The launch was two days after, and despite Lady Julia's airs of martyrdom at the fort, when she understood she had well and truly lost, her sunny demeanor reasserted itself.

"You needn't worry about Lady Saville," Swann said paternally at their last meal together. "She is quite safe with me."

Lady Julia affected a smile. "The weeks will go by quickly with you to entertain me, Governor," she said, winking at James, who wished desperately there were some place in all of Port Royal for them to go alone. When the governor, health still uncertain, went to bed, Norrington bade them all good night dutifully.

He had not quite expected Lady Julia's ingenuity in being where she ought not be. She was waiting in the carriage, gloves off and hair down. "It'll seem a thousand years before you come home," she said passionately, kissing him without a care for Mrs. Grundy. "Promise it'll be fast?"

"I'll do my best," James replied, stroking her face and allowing himself just a bit of impropriety by kissing her on the mouth and throat. They would be married soon after his return, and no force on earth would prevent it.

"You are too honest," Julia said softly, embracing him close. "It's a flaw we share. Be careful, and don't let Jack Sparrow dun you for anything, the villain."

Norrington chuckled and kissed her stoutly on the lips again and again until she began to blush. "Nothing could persuade me to trust Sparrow," he said.

"Good," said Julia with a sparkling smile. She brushed her fingers against her lips. "I love you."

Before he could say a word at that much-cherished admission, Julia sprang from the carriage and up the lane, waving and smiling at him as though she were a girl. Norrington stared after her before pulling the door closed and signaling the coachman to leave.

She loved him. He could nearly die happy, now.


	5. The Stowaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tortuga is revisited and a stowaway is found upon the Black Pearl

**Chapter Five: The Stowaway**

Tortuga's fragrant bouquet had not improved since Norrington's first and only expedition to the lawless isle. It stank of rum, raw sewage in the harbor, and unwashed flesh. Every tart offering a share of her wares reminded him that Julia was waiting, probably impatiently, at Governor Swann's mansion.

And Jack Sparrow, the unhanged scoundrel, was making merry with a bevy of the most expensive women of Tortuga. A blonde lass with heavily drawn eyes, a mulatta in a cream dress cut nearly to her nipples, a woman with the largest breasts any man on the Pearl had ever seen.

"They call her Chanteuse," Gibbs said. "Don't know what that means, but imagine having the use of those sails, sor!"

Gibbs had attached himself to Norrington almost immediately after the commodore had boarded the Pearl. He was perhaps the least offensive of the crew, but his breath stank incessantly of cheap grog and he spoke familiarly of things that should be best left forgotten.

"Ye were once so eager to see this scow sunk to the bottom of the deep," he said. "Must sting, being a guest upon her."

"I do what I must," Norrington said coldly, hoping to shake the garrulous sailor, but to no avail.

"Jack says you have a hoity-toity woman waiting for ye, now, Commodore. Is she a widow, come to Jamaica for adventure now that her first man's dead? A rich man's younger sister, looking for a title?"

"Lady Saville is hardly either of those things," Norrington said cuttingly.

"Pity," Gibbs replied, undaunted. "I've got an eye for the widee-women, you see. Give me a widow any day, says I! They've got a knowledge of what a man is, rather than what he should be."

"A useless barnacle, chattering like the parrot?" Anamaria snapped from the rigging. "Leave him be, Gibbs!"

"Unnatural, it is," Gibbs muttered, stumping away. "Taking orders from a woman..."

So she was first, and Gibbs second. Norrington, despite himself, approved. Gibbs might bluster and bellow, but any man who gave the mate lip would find himself with a split one, and Anamaria knew the Pearl nearly as well as Jack, who was a scoundrel, but one with uncanny affinity for his ship.

It had been so for James and the Interceptor, and fruitlessly, he wished for his old ship. The Excelsior was a fine tall ship, but the Interceptor had been his...

"Mooning for the girl?" Jack asked slyly. "Anamaria is beginning to find your passion for your Julia quite romantic, you know."

"I was thinking about the Interceptor, actually," Norrington said, looking over the side at the water speeding before and behind them. Jack's attitude immediately sobered.

"Fine ship," he agreed with a nod. "Yours, aye?"

"Aye," Norrington said. "When shall we reach Tortuga?"

"By tomorrow sundown," Jack had said, clapping James on the shoulder. "I know how it is, to lose your ship. If there is anything I'm sorry for, in getting back my Pearl, 'tis that, commodore."

"Thank you, Captain Sparrow," Norrington said, returning to his solitary watch of the sea about him, sliding by quick and quiet. Rumor was wrong about many things concerning the "cursed" Black Pearl, but her speed was not one of them.

Now he was in Tortuga and any momentary sympathy between himself and Sparrow had vaporized like foam on cheap beer as the crew of the Pearl caroused thoughtlessly, and even Jack appeared to have forgotten the mission. Norrington groaned privately, and nursed his one cup of grog.

"You look a bit lonely, mate," said one of the whores in a feigned-piratical accent. "Mind if I join ye?"

He gazed up. The woman had flaming red hair, and her gown, such as it was, was translucent. "If ye wish," Norrington replied dryly as she dropped into the chair next to him.

"You're a surly one," she said. "Looking to one of your captain's women?"

"Hardly," Norrington replied, before looking down. "I've a new wife in my home port. She's to have my first son by the time I return."

The whore smiled, the paint on her lips dried and fading. "Congratulations on your forthcoming blessing, laddie," she said, the piratical accent turning Irish and perhaps more honest, though James was unsure. "If I may ask, I've not seen you on Jack Sparrow's crew before."

"Nay, tis my first time shipping out with him," he said. "Have ye any advice for a salt such as me?"

The Irishwoman laughed. "Perhaps I do," she said. "They say the French are after Jack Sparrow, boy. We hear only bits and pieces of rumor, we girls, but there's been tell that the French attacks are merely distraction."

Norrington looked at her, troubled. "What d'ye mean, woman?" he asked, trying to sound like a man gone back to sea for his son, not like a commodore of His Majesty's Royal Navy. "What do the French play at?"

"They're seeking the Isla del Muerte, and the cursed treasure," she said. "There's tell they got agents as far out as Port Royal, finding a ship to take them where the treasure is. Louis has offered a title and a chest of gold to the man who brings the treasure to Paris."

"Aye?" Norrington said, forcing calm to his voice. "Then the Beau-Regard hassles good salts for no more reason..."

"Than to force Jack Sparrow's hand into alliance," the woman said. "The French have learned much of late. One of their agents has found or bribed themselves a worthwhile mark. But bah! I'm speaking nonsense and you've only had one tankard of grog. Order us up another round?"

Gratefully, Norrington ordered the crown agent a brimming tankard of ale, and freshened his grog. At length, Jack finished sporting with the whores, and the redheaded Irishwoman had found more enjoyable company, leaving James at last enough time to think of Julia.

"This time, mate, you're mooning over the girl," Jack said some hours later, pulling Norrington to his feet and by some unknown signal, rounding up the crew of the Pearl to leave the tavern. "It's the expression in your eyes gives it away."

"Yes, I suppose so," Norrington said acerbically as Jack lurched against him the entire way back to the ship. "Perhaps next time, you might avoid the grog when you're working?"

"Grog keeps a man's mind limber and his muscles loose," Jack replied. "Isn't that so, Mr. Gibbs?"

"Aye, sir," a voice came ghosting over the side. "Sir, you best come up right away. We've a bit of a problem...a stowaway."

Norrington and Jack, suddenly both far more sober than previously suspected, sprang to an alert posture and boarded the ship quickly. Mr. Gibbs was holding a struggling, slender figure, who was apparently trying to kick the inoffensive sod in the shins.

James felt his stomach sink. Surely she wouldn't. Surely that was a thing no well-bred lady...

"I b'lieve this baggage belongs to you, sor," Gibbs said, propelling the figure into Norrington's arms. "Swears like a hellcat when she's provoked, does your Lady Saville. Scratches, too."

Julia's upturned face was suddenly inches from James. She did not look particularly clean, nor friendly.

"What Mr. Gibbs does not mention," she said clearly as Norrington's fingers clasped around his fiancee's upper arms in surprise and dismay, "Is that I have a legitimate reason to be aboard."

"Because you wouldn't tell me!" Gibbs roared.

"Because that information," and Julia tossed her head, revealing that she had cropped her beautiful dark hair, "Is for Captain Sparrow and Mr. Norrington alone."

"No secrets aboard the Pearl," Jack interrupted, lurching obscenely into Julia and knocking her to the deck. "We learned that much from the late, unlamented Barbossa."

Julia glared up at Jack, then with pleading eyes to James, who was not certain he quite trusted the woman sprawled on the deck with short hair and boy's togs. She looked entirely too comfortable to be on her first voyage; Elizabeth would have never attired herself so without much comment.

"With all due respect," she said properly, turning her flinty gaze back to Sparrow, "My secrecy is a matter of urgent importance. If you do not deem it so after hearing my reasons, then by all means, announce it to your crew."

Sparrow chuckled, lifting Julia to her feet with one hand and ignoring her gasp. "Tis no secret," he said. "You're the French agent who's been directing things roundabout here. Very cleverly done, but then again, you've never faced Captain Jack Sparrow before."

Julia's foot stamped against the deck. "How dare you!" she exclaimed. "I'm no French spy."

"Then you're what, darling, the pirate princess of the Caribbean?" Jack asked Julia, whose clear irritation with the proceedings oozed from her expression. "Certainly, as I've said before, you're no lady. No well-bred Englishwoman could hear such slander against decency and her person without swooning. Even were she not a stowaway on my ship."

"My definition of well-bred much differs from yours, Sparrow," Julia said coldly, lifting her chin proudly. "I've no interest in taking a fit OR answering your vile suppositions."

Jack chuckled before turning to Norrington with a predatory glint in his brown-black eyes. "And this is the flower who's so caught your eye, Commodore?" he asked slyly.

Norrington found himself caught between two cold gazes and wishing he had not indulged in the third tankard of grog. Rather severely, in fact.


	6. Agent of the Crown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which much is revealed about the stowaway and their mission.

Lady Saville...less lady and more Julia now...glared at Jack. Her hair fell over her eyes, and her blouse was neat and seamanly under a black vest and short pants. Barelegged, with the right hat, she could almost pass for a boy, but for her height, and a man, but for the slenderness.

Then she smiled at Norrington, and he was reminded about how dearly he loved her, how sweet a guerdon was her affection. He took heart and faced Jack Sparrow with new spirit.

"A rose without its thorns is a poor thing, wouldn't you agree, Mr. Sparrow?" Norrington replied, gazing down at his compass idly. Julia smiled triumphantly, and Jack chuckled. "Lady Saville, the weather is turning bad. Mr. Sparrow and I must insist you confine yourself to captain's quarters."

Julia drew breath to protest, but upon noticing Jack's leer of foreknowledge, fluttered her eyes and affected a smile. "Yes, sir," she said, inclining her head and giving an ironic salute. "I'll leave you gentlemen to the manly tasks and do some needlework instead."

And with a saucy swish of her skirts, Lady Saville had departed for the staterooms, leaving both Jack and Norrington watching after her. "She's a spy, Commodore," Jack said darkly. "That you can rely upon."

Norrington nodded, grim-expressioned. "I suppose 'twas inevitable that some fool with more greed than sense would attempt to seize the treasure of Cortes," he said. "I find it abhorrent, however, that they sent a woman as their agent."

Jack chuckled coarsely, grinning at Norrington with childish delight. "You still think she's another Elizabeth, don't you?" he asked. "A naive girl with a bit of pluck and adolescent ruthlessness, entangled in events beyond her ken. That woman's no fool, Commodore. She's a canny guttersnipe, no matter what her title now, and she's out for the main chance. The French'll have to look out for her taking the treasure for herself, I'd suspect."

"Mr. Sparrow," Norrington said with a long-suffering air, "I will thank you to air your suspicions about Lady Saville privately or, preferably, not at all."

"She's got much better taste than Elizabeth, I'll give that to your lady," Jack said with killing slyness. "She's not content with a handsome nobody. She wants her salary as an agent of two crowns and her position as an admiral's wife. Give her enough time, she'll crown you king of England and rule the country herself while you conquer the seas."

"Sparrow!" Norrington said. "The letter of marque you carry is not so secure that you may slander my bride, no matter how unusual the circumstance. I'll thank you to allow me some privacy with the woman."

Jack chuckled, and then an air of severe sobriety crossed his Gypsy-dark face. "Ay, and I'll be finding who allowed that minx passage on my ship," he said. "Good luck in your hunt, Commodore."

With that Parthian shaft left to rankle, Norrington composed himself and let himself alone a moment to face the woman who was noisily pacing back and forth in the captain's stateroom, singing to herself. Finally, he knocked, and the noise ceased.

"Yes?" Julia asked crisply.

"It's Commodore Norrington," James said, fumbling terribly over the formality. "I need to interview you at once."

"Not if that rapscallion Sparrow's with you," said the woman immediately. "He unsettles me and I shall misspeak myself."

"Captain Sparrow is interrogating his crew to why he was unaware of your embarkation," Norrington said, setting his hand to the knob and twisting it against his best-beloved's grip. "You will let me in immediately."

The door flew open and Norrington found himself facing a Julia who held a pistol, aimed quite professionally at his heart, in one hand, and a large, blotched letter in the other. "Your foolishness has compromised my mission, Commodore," she said. "As an agent of the English Crown, bound to follow in these machinations for the Cortes Treasure, I was honor-bound to journey to Isla del Muerte and prevent the French from taking stock of the treasure."

An agent of the crown. Well, Sparrow had been right -- Madam Julia was a spy. Norrington took the letter with a great sigh, and brushed away the pistol with some obvious irritation, sitting himself in the captain's chair without a by-your-leave to an anguished Julia.

"Tis a pity your superiors were not more prompt in letting me know you were in the vicinity," he said, scanning the letter and handing it back. "Between yourself and Sparrow, it seems the crown has viewed me useless for its needs concerning the war and piracy in the Caribbean."

"The Interceptor," Julia said, not unkindly, but not without a tinge of duty in her voice. "You were outwitted by a pirate and a blacksmith, or so it seemed to the crown. I quickly understood that Sparrow is rather unlike other men and Will Turner has the luck God gives to fools and children, but you might understand the reluctance to entrust you with details."

He understood fully, and the knowledge burnt him. Rather abruptly, he rose and made to leave the room, but again, Julia surprised him. This time by throwing herself at his knees, eyes suddenly bright with tears and lip trembling.

"It's a poor jest, Lady Saville," he began. "To play a desperate girl with me now."

"It worked for Miss Swann," Julia replied coldly. "But I don't need to ask for your hand; 'tis mine. And I ask you no favor. If you must, put me ashore, as I believe you and Sparrow will succeed in your errand. But do not leave me so unsettled, James, please."

"What do you want from me?" he asked, lifting her up severely. She was so different from the elegant lady in Port Royal, as different as a tiger from a house-cat. And yet, the dent in her lip was as kissable as ever, and her eyes glinted the same knowing mischief...

She leaned up and kissed him hotly, and rather than putting her off, James Norrington kissed his lass back, the wages of grog, Tortuga, and playing officer to his own fiancee finally wearing him past endurance of polite morals.

But still, he found that manners had staying power beyond even endurance.

"Julia," he said, caressing her smudged cheek. "Are you certain of this?"

In response, she pulled them to the door and locked it tight. "I have never been more certain," Julia said. "If you cannot have mercy on me now..."

He answered her the only way a man in love could.

On the deck, Sparrow heard his own door lock against him, and chuckled merrily, stroking his beard. "She'll be the death of him," he said to Mr. Cotton's parrot, who was sitting, disapprovingly, in the rigging. "But at least there'll be some enjoyment before the inevitable, ay?"


	7. Isla del Muerte

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Norrington and Sparrow attempt to make plans, only to have them foiled.

Isla del Muerte's unsavory reputation began some fifty years before the Black Pearl discovered Cortes' cursed treasure. A thriving settlement of Spanish and French settlers had been utterly destroyed by an outbreak of yellow fever and rioting. None ever knew what transpired over the last week of Isla del Muerte's ill-fated existence, but many of the dead had ghastly expressions on their faces and wounds not usually associated with malaria.

Jack Sparrow enjoyed discussing the grislier speculations on what happened on Isla del Muerte with Commodore Norrington and Lady Julia once they'd come back on deck in the morning. Lady Julia's relatively demure composure and the Commodore's refusal to leave her side were viewed as endearing by most of the crew, including Anamaria.

Anamaria, it had been discovered, had much approved of Julia's plans to aid and assist Jack and James against the French, and had abetted Julia's stowing aboard. **She** had been aware of Julia's status as agent of the crown, and Jack was quite annoyed at her lapse.

"I am your captain, not that minx," he'd growled at her. Anamaria had been unrepentant.

"She had a mandate from the Crown, sir," Anamaria told Jack. "And she was a good enough sailor for you until she was discovered by Gibbs."

But with the looming island before them, and the Excelsior delayed in the fog, it seemed rather dire. There were no French ships as yet, but they seemed just out of sight, perhaps waiting to see if the Pearl was alone or no.

"We ought to send out scouts to the caves," insisted Julia, not for the first time. "Just two or three in the longboat. What if the French have prepared an ambush? We can best determine our tactical position by knowing our landscape."

"Not after the last time I was sent into ambush in these caves," said Norrington.

"And that very ambush is **why** \--" but at the look in her betrothed's eye, Lady Julia subsided. "My apologies, sir. It's part of my training, to survey all routes."

Sparrow sniggered. "I'm certain that's the full extent of why, my **lady** ," he said. "Convenient ways out being so very necessary for a lady of high station. I thought your kind disappeared in your fine feathers."

Instead of taking much umbrage, the lady seemed to recall her current attire and demeanor and but made a passing attempt at offense. "Why, Captain Sparrow!" she said with more charm than anger. "My kind is rare; I've been told I may even be singular."

"Singular indeed," said Sparrow. "Will you excuse us, Lady Julia? Your fiance and I must discuss this latest turn of events."

Both men braced for another volley of feminine complaints; oddly, Julia acquiesced with a pretty turn of her head and a flounce that could not have been matched by Miss Helena Wilson's most frilled and bedizened skirt.

"Odd lass," Jack told James with a confidential air.

"I've noticed," said the Commodore with a slightly distracted note. "Where the devil **is** the Excelsior? In truth, were it not for my fear of a trap, Lady Saville's plan t'were hardly a bad one."

Jack scratched his nose vigorously. "Ay," he said. "My thought was perhaps that we could confine the lady to the captain's quarters while we pursued her plan...just to protect her delicate sensibilities and those lovely, nimble fingers of hers."

While earning a black scowl from Commodore Norrington, Jack Sparrow was clever enough to see that the man agreed with him. Clapping him on the back, the pirate moved them out of view of the crew.

"I apologize for the perfidy," Jack said in a low voice. "But...pirate. And I've little doubt one or two of my crew has taken a coin or two from her purse."

"Mutiny?" asked Norrington, aghast -- though at the thought of dishonest crew or Lady Julia bribing pirates, Jack was unsure.

"Bah," Sparrow said magnanimously. "It's a little extra booty for the swabs that all ends up in my pocket. They'll listen for her, but never give her anything much."

Norrington considered this as a gentleman might, giving no clue what agonies he suffered at this callous treatment of his ladylove. But, as Jack himself noted, when at sea, Norrington was an officer first and foremost. It was an admirable quality, and Jack's regard for the man was genuine.

"Sir!" Anamaria cried. Both men were at attention in an instant. "The Excelsior has been sighted, but she's damaged."

A low hiss alerted Sparrow to his unlikely comrade's agony at that news. Yet another vessel damaged by dalliances with pirates, and with the war going, it was even more dangerous to have a ship in dock.

"Courage, laddie," Sparrow said in a pig's whisper. "The Crown can pay for it later, for its bamboozling of such an upright fellow. And think of the accolades you'll win for foiling the French shortly..."

Seemingly to contradict this wisdom, Gibbs rushed toward them, his ruddy face brilliant with choking, gasping rage. "She's gone, sir!" he said. "I told you 'twas bad luck to have a woman aboard. She took a rowboat and disappeared in this cursed fog..."

Neither Norrington nor Sparrow needed to be told who she was. All pleasant demeanor lost, Norrington roared for his ship, and Sparrow for Anamaria.

"This is madness," Sparrow told his counterpart snippily. "You know we'll have to follow her into the caves, don't you?"

With an exasperated sigh, Norrington nodded his assent. "I have no doubt, Captain Sparrow," he said, sounding thoroughly wearied, "That this was Lady Saville's plan the entire time. At the very least, shall we keep it between we two?"

"What, you mean pursuing your runaway wench and giving her a good spanking before placing her in the brig for stealing my boat?" Sparrow asked slyly. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt...and there is all that swag I've been meanin' to recover there, if you catch me thought."

Norrington rubbed the side of the nose. "Once we apprehend Lady Saville and deal a scratch to those French dogs, I think we might recover much of Isla del Muerte's treasure, Captain Sparrow."

"The Royal Navy, turn to piracy?" asked Sparrow, aping horror. "Why, I never..."

Piously, Norrington smirked at the pirate. "The men need the morale boost, Mr. Sparrow," he said. "After all, there's a war on, and nothing elevates a man's heart more than a treasure dearly won."


	8. An Unexpected Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which plots are uncovered and treachery unearthed.

Groves and Anamaria put in charge of the respective ships and French sail still entirely unsighted, a reluctant pair of sailors found themselves rowing through fog toward the cursed caves of the cursed isle of death.

"Rather relish it, don't you?" Sparrow asked as their oars dipped into black water. "Now, it's all well and good, a sea-battle with the enemy, but this is the stuff stories are made of. True love, faithless women, plenty of swag...about like last time, but without Will Turner to bugger up the works."

Norrington permitted himself the briefest of smiles. "He was remarkably brash," he said. "But he is in Philadelphia with Elizabeth Swann and we..."

"Are pursuing a guttersnipe lady of the backstreets of London," said Sparrow. "I recall 'er now. Or at least, where I knew her kin from. Her mum was on the stage, a great player. A Nell or a Moll or possibly a Polly, rouge on her cheeks and a black wig to play Cleopatra."

"You cannot be certain of that," Norrington said. "How could you be certain that she's the daughter of an actress you knew in London? That's preposterous."

Sparrow smiled, and there was a hint of infinite regret, a world lost beyond the finding, in his expression. Norrington found himself sympathizing with the pirate for the first time in their many interactions. "Some women, you remember their faces, no matter how far you...or they...roam," he said. "Be careful, Commodore. Do you want a second face to remember with regret?"

Indeed, the matter of the promise between himself and Lady Julia was one of great sensitivity to Norrington. He had behaved wrongly with her, but with each revelation, the lady's propriety seemed deeply in doubt. Widow seemed a fool's hope; she was the Crown's agent, paid well for her lost virtues. Still, all could be explained away, if only he could trust that his love was returned truly, and was not a mere machination of a spy.

"Shh," Sparrow said, as their small boat gently bumped into a natural harbor of sorts. "Voices."

As silent as ghosts, the two men disembarked and crouched behind one of the treasure-laden nooks of the caves of Isla del Muerte. With great difficulty, Norrington pushed back his revulsion -- these caves held many skeletons, and many more things that turned the stomach at their very sight. The gold liberally littering the shelves and rock were blood-bought and their faint miasma cast a chill through the soul.

"You handled a whole boat by yourself? My minx!" a hearty male voice commended Julia, and Norrington's heart sank within him. "What do you think the British will send us, lass?"

"Eh-la," said Julia airily, and Sparrow gave Norrington a black look, for her voice had a sudden French tone to it. "Who knows what my wounded love will send after me? The French ships will nail my honorable gentleman to the deck of the Excelsior, especially after the bruising dealt it."

"LeBeau will be annoyed with you for not sinking the Pearl before you left. It was part of the deal. He dealt with the Excelsior, you dealt with the Pearl," said the male voice. Sparrow's look turned outraged, and Norrington was forced to restrain the man from leaping forth to revenge himself.

"Why should I care for LeBeau, Billy?" Julia asked arrogantly. "He didn't manage to hold up his end of the bargain, and truth be told, I am, how you say, not fond of the bloody French."

Norrington, not being well acquainted with the tales of Will Turner's errant father, one Bootstrap Bill, was rather at odds to understand Jack Sparrow's outrage. For the pirate was nearly purple with anger, struggling against Norrington's grip as if he would leap over the wall that hid them and challenge both man and mistress to a duel to the death.

"You?" laughed Bill, sounding amused at the very notion. "Half a Frenchwoman as you are, the daughter of a vicomte who's the source of your fortune?"

"My wits are the source of my fortune, Billy," said Miss Saville. "To the depths with my father, declaring his marriage to my mother null and void."

"Your mother was an opera singer and an actress," Bill said. "He was a vicomte. Surely you see the inappropriate nature of the match."

"I see...why, I see quite a sight," Julia drawled. "What of the Pearl? And the Excelsior? Surely you weren't drawn into the caves on my account, Commodore?"

All traces of the charming lady he had met at Weatherby Swann's had long since vanished into the truth of a jaded, shameless spy. A half-French actress's daughter, the most inappropriate of women to love, and Norrington desperately tucked away his affections as he faced Julia Saville.

"Discretion was our watchword, madam," he said stiffly.

"Bugger that," Jack replied. "Bootstrap, you traitorous dog. You'd lead the French to the cursed treasure? Your brain must have gone salty in the vasty deep, man!"

Bootstrap Bill chuckled, a loud booming sound that echoed unpleasantly in the subterranean grottoes of Isla del Muerte and its treasure-laden caves. For all that the man was Will Turner's father, Norrington saw little resemblance. He was a big man, rangy and raw-boned, with a red nose and a rude bearing. Perhaps it was a blessing for the son not to know the father, for it could only be to his misery to claim such a man.

"The English Navy had no use for me tales, Jack Sparrow," he said. "And I knew the curse broken, for I was in Paris, and suddenly the bread and the demoiselles were lookin' mighty tasty, if you catch me meaning."

Julia turned her head slightly in disgust, barely feigned. "Well, now, what are we to do, we four?"

Jack sniggered at the agent's attempt at rational conversation. "Well, love, that depends heavily on what **you're** really up to," he said. "I intend to throw you in the brig for stealing my boat if you're alive at the end of it, but I suspect that depends on your allegiances to Bootstrap and the French and the strength of your spurned lover's stomach."

The woman's eyes widened momentarily before resuming their natural watchfulness and venturing a gaze toward Commodore Norrington, who felt his resolve turn to steel. There could be no mercy for a traitor to the Crown; not even a woman. Not even a woman he loved.

"I'm afraid Sparrow has the right of it," Norrington said, keeping his gaze on Bootstrap rather than Madam (he could not longer imagine her a lady) Saville. "What madness is this, madam?"

"To hell with this madam business," Bootstrap said. "Julie and me, we made a deal with the French. In exchange for delivering the Pearl, the Excelsior, and the cursed treasure of Cortes to them, me and her would get her title and her treasury back. I'll make a proper French vicomte, won't I? Think of how I'll upset the dinner parties, Jack."

A genuine expression of distaste and distress entered Julia's eyes as Bootstrap Bill so cavalierly listed their crimes and her desperate reason for committing treason. Neither Sparrow nor Norrington doubted her distaste for the French was genuine; and Norrington knew that his former lady was deeply affronted at the wrong her aristocrat father had done her mother rather than motivated by greed. Or at least, the debt to honor outweighed avarice.

"Then I must place you both under arrest as traitors to the British crown," Norrington said, reaching for his pistol. "If there is the least resistance, I will be forced to take drastic measures."

Apparently, everyone had anticipated Norrington's drastic measures. At that moment, Sparrow launched himself at Bootstrap with a righteous cry of indignation. In that moment, Norrington lost sight of Julia and spun about, trying in vain to ascertain her position.

When the large candelabra met his right temple, Norrington caught the briefest of glimpses of the woman. Her lips were bitten together grimly, and he wished there was something he could say to her as he sank to the cold stone, but there was no time.

There had never been any time.


	9. Sentiment and Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a rescue is successfully attempted and an agent of the crown woos Admiral Norrington.

Commodore Norrington awoke to find himself handcuffed and roughly tied to Jack Sparrow on a damp, musty islet with no treasure upon it at all. Sparrow groaned noisily at Norrington's return to the land of the living, and clearly, the fellow was bruised from his encounter with Bootstrap Bill.

"This is ruddy unfortunate," Sparrow said. "I suppose Bootstrap and your French bird will ransom us before the Royal Navy court-martials you and executes me. Perhaps it'll buy them a second estate somewhere."

"Jack," said Norrington, clearly in a state of anguish. "My headache is **quite** bad enough without your cheerful speculation."

Sparrow shrugged, and Norrington realized the stink of the man was in no way improving his dismal mood. "Have it your way. Grim silence 'til your bird wins the war for the French and seals our doom."

Norrington groaned. "Thank you," he said crisply before a noise caused both men to start and gaze in the direction it came from, providing both a second shock.

"If you gentlemen have **quite** finished," said Julia, undaunted and perhaps undauntable as she stood before them, twirling a key on her finger casually. "Would you prefer to be freed, then, or do I take it to mean you'd rather die of thirst than accept a traitorous woman's help?"

Sparrow chuckled, making a casual grab for Julia's key. "Your commodore might be troubled with scruples here and there, but I'm much for escaping Isla del Muerte with my head firmly attached to my parts, love," he said. "Unlock us."

Norrington, resolute in his determination to die without hearkening to this dissolute and wanton creature, lifted his head. In the faint torchlight, he looked very young and betrayed as he gazed on his former beloved.

"What ridiculous madness leads you to believe we'd trust you?" he asked, pointing to his wounds. "I've already bled for your tarnished honor, haven't I, madam?"

Julia's posture sagged as she met James's eyes and saw the deep hurt found there. "Ay," she said in a low voice. "I've done you a wrong in the name of my king, sir. You do me one by not believing me now."

Sparrow's black eyes glittered as he heard a noise that neither of the embattled lovers seemed to. "And unless you've got Bootstrap Bill somewhere more secure than these caves, love, we'll need to hurry along before your triple-crossed French officers arrive for their gold," he said urgently.

"Bah," Julia replied. "The French captain isn't brave nor foolhardy. He expected Billy and I to explode the two English ships with those two barges of powder I've got positioned to collapse the caves of Isla del Muerte, and arrive in a third barge with Cortes' treasure."

"And why in heaven's name, with all this treasure," and Jack expansively gestured to the glittering caves, "Would the man want a treasure that turned men to half-living shadows?"

Julia gave him a singular look. "While I may be a mere woman, Captain Sparrow," she said tartly, "Even I recognize the benefits of a legion of unkillable soldiers."

Norrington caught his breath as a hideous possibility took form in his mind. "You haven't touched it, have you?" he asked. "Until you give it back..."

"Blood and gold, the debt is owed," Julia said, raising a hand with a prominent cut upon it. "Twas a gesture of good faith to Billy, poor gullible sod. He truly thought I'd 'give him a share of me plunder' if he assisted me."

Sparrow chuckled dryly. "And now?"

Lady Julia tossed her head imperiously, as though they were not in the dank treasure caves of a cursed isle and she was not garbed in boy's clothing with ragged hair and bare feet. An upwelling of his old sentiment nearly overcame Norrington -- truly, there was no one to match her for spirit. But the problem of her birth, as well as her treachery, rankled.

"Now," and Julia's voice was cunning and hard, "We have two boats to return to our ships. One was made large enough for the cursed treasure of Cortes. I know it's not much compared to the swag of this island, but we haven't the time to plunder the isle before the French are upon us. Jack and I shall ride in the larger barge, to the Excelsior--" she raised a hand to quell the uproar, "And James shall follow with the criminal, to deliver him to what justice he sees fit."

Norrington and Sparrow exchanged a long glance, one that was made between two equals rather than two antagonists. Wordlessly, Sparrow took Julia's upper arm, ignoring the cry she made.

"It's an excellent plan, madam, but it ignores your theft of my boat, after you stowed away upon it," Jack said. "For that crime, I'll have you in my brig until we return to Port Royal."

Julia's eyes grew very wide, and she gestured an appeal to Norrington, whose heart was sore over the seeming cruelty, but he shook his head.

"The scandal at your appearance on the Excelsior, madam," he said. "Nor do I think you wish your status of agent of the crown known, nor do I approve of your treatment of Captain Sparrow and his crew. A week in the brig will do you a world of good."

"On what topic, Commodore?" asked Julia crisply.

"Respecting the duty of honorable men," Norrington said, turning his back to her pleas and importuning. "Sparrow, find out where we set the powder off. I will load my barge with treasure, and after your prisoner is secure, we will split it according to our agreement."

Sparrow nodded. "That's good sense," he said, roughly dragging Julia along, for all the world behaving as if the woman did not have a pistol and perhaps several knives on her person. It appeared that the shock of being double-crossed after a lifetime of outmaneuvering her opponents had rendered her unable to recover her edge. "Come now, love, nobody wants to hurt you. You've just got to suffer what's coming to you, same as any man."

"Indeed, you shall throw my **sex** against me," Julia replied, throwing a glance over her shoulder at her scorning lover, "As though I had not crafted a plan to sink the French in confusion, prevent an army of invincible sailors to come against the British, and secured your rescue from Bootstrap Bill's greed."

"And will the crown agree? Seems a lot of circuitous planning, lass, for a little swag for the men and two ships blown up," Sparrow said.

"Preventing any French use of the Isla del Muerte was my primary, mission, sir," Julia replied, following along with defiant docility in her posture, each step ripping another piece from James's heart. "I fulfilled my mission. As an honorable man with a duty must."

With the final words cast at his feet, Norrington fled the accusatory glances of the woman he loved. There was much to do to secure the caves, and he planned to load the barge with as much treasure as possible. Even halved, it would greatly increase the Excelsior's morale, and turning to destroy the perfidious French dogs would bring them to a high point before their return to Port Royal...

...and beyond that, Norrington could not think nor dream.

 


	10. Another Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which all difficulties are resolved.

A week later, the Excelsior and the Black Pearl returned to Port Royal with Commodore Norrington in despair and Madam Julia Saville silent as she was returned to confinement at the governor's house. As it was assumed that Lady Julia had found misadventure exploring the estates of her fictional brother and was quite ill, all talk of wedding stilled. Rumor boiled in the town and in the fort. Julia's ragged clothes and cut hair, as well as the bruises she wore, were much more a scandal than Elizabeth Swann's. Elizabeth Swann had been known to be wild and a bit foolish in her wishes; Lady Saville had appeared much wiser.

Lady Saville, Norrington thought, was exceptionally good at creating appearances, but not living them.

"I shall be glad to be clapped in chains, if that is what you decide must be," Julia had said bitterly as she was returned to the custody of Commodore Norrington. "I never liked being Lady Saville and simpering to the old fools in this town. I'd rather be indebted to Jack Sparrow as a pirate, or ply a trade in Tortuga, than watch Miss Helena make a pious moue over me at church on Sunday."

Governor Swann, who had known, to Norrington's immense dismay, of Lady Julia's true avocation, patted her hand in a most avuncular fashion. He had been the one to suggest the preposterous story to be told to Port Royal society, so that if Julia were to leave, her position and her dignity would not be compromised.

"If that were so, my girl," he said, nodding to Norrington, "I think you would sail with the next tide. Now come, you need rest and tending. Good day, Commodore."

For nearly a month, Norrington saw nothing of Lady Julia, who had mysteriously recovered her title upon her return to Port Royal in his thoughts of her. It was a strange month, one where he could often not be bothered to think of the woman, but his mind would stray to her often.

Bootstrap Bill, after discovering he had been most grievously duped, pleaded mercy with the colony, and Norrington, who had no taste for blood, ordered him deported to the American colonies. Sparrow offered to take him -- "Will and dear Elizabeth must wonder how I haven't managed to turn up and cause mischief yet," the pirate said. "I must remedy that immediately."

With no distractions, Norrington was very lonely, and very unprepared for the entrance Lady Julia made into the fort one summery, mellow afternoon that otherwise seemed made for naps.

Certainly, the sleeping guards who had let her pass would say as much.

"You have not been to call at the governor's," Lady Julia told him by way of greeting. "After much affront to my pride and my heart, I decided to call upon you."

Norrington sighed. Clearly, it would be one of those meetings that most wore upon him. "Must you play for my sympathies, even now?" he asked. "I have been your fool since the beginning; I won't give you the satisfaction now."

Julia raised her chin aristocratically and gazed out of the chamber. Her bruises were largely healed, but her hair remained short and somehow beguiling, and James wondered that she had gone about with only a hat and no wig to disguise her shocking hair-dressing.

"No, you wouldn't, would you?" she asked, fingers gripping the window sill with a surprising ferocity. "You've had your satisfaction and proven your thesis, and soon you'll make us both miserable in pursuit of your duty."

"What, then?" Norrington asked, driven to near-madness by her mysterious statements and angry manners. "I was not betrayed? You have been faithful to me, and your acceptance of my suit was honest? Madam, do not try my faith."

Lady Julia pulled away from the window and turned sharply to meet James face to face. "I agreed to marry you because I loved you," she said. "As an agent of the crown, would it not have been infinitely simpler not to tie myself to Port Royal society? I could have been called home to England once I gained the intelligence I needed, you never the wiser, nor nearly such a detriment to my mission to Isla del Muerte."

"Perhaps," he replied. "But I hardly think it fair you ask me to believe you now. It pulls me between love and duty."

The woman shivered, her fine lawn skirts swishing back and forth with each irritated step. "You think that you're the only soul ever to be torn between love and duty?" Julia asked. "Do you so lightly regard a lady's duty to her king and country? Yes, I deceived you and the crown in my actions. Yes, I was involved closely with Bootstrap Bill. I did my duty, sir."

She was hot with affront, passion coloring her cheeks. Norrington found himself believing, at last, that Lady Julia loved him. That she would marry him, if their differences could be reconciled and her duties as an agent of the Crown did not weigh heavier than their mutual affection.

"Julia," James said at last. "I apologize. I did not realize your duty hung so heavily upon you, especially given the circumstances."

"That, by far, is the most oblique apology I've ever received, James," Julia replied, gracefully nodding at him. "Where does it leave us? A betrayed lover and a deceived husband? Two duty-bound fools afraid of love?"

He smiled, but without joy. "You speak as a man might," James said.

"I speak honestly," Julia replied. "Can a royal officer love a spy? Can they wed happily? Can you pretend you do not know of my unhappy parentage?"

This was the crux of things; James Norrington saw his chance for happiness vanishingly close and near to disappearing. Lady Julia's face was pale and cold, resigned to the inevitable. Clearly, the matter of her betrayed mother and French father stung her to the very heart.

"I know that your parents were wed, and that your father's place among the nobility of France is unchallenged," Norrington replied carefully, watching the expressions of Julia's face. "I know that your mother was a remarkable and talented woman, one that Jack Sparrow remembered a decade or more after meeting her. And I know that whatever the means, you are a gentlewoman by right."

Lady Julia's fair face remained suspicious. "My parentage left aside, you have not answered the more pressing question, sir," she said. "Can two duty-bound servants of England love truly? Or will sorrow and hardship follow them?"

"It would be difficult," Norrington allowed. "They would have to be very much in love, and willing to forgive offense that cut to the core."

Julia's eyes narrowed. "Indeed," she said. "Would you give me permission to leave now, Commodore Norrington? I find myself done with this tedium."

"Julia," Norrington said, getting in the way of her exit. "You misunderstand. I love you. I believe you love me. And I believe that two people driven by duty are well-prepared to handle difficulty."

"Oh," said Julia rather breathlessly. "I..."

James took his beloved into his arms and kissed her deeply. And as Julia surrendered into the kiss, he felt that indeed, it might be possible for this foolish liaison to translate into a loving, if unsettled, marriage.

Two months later, they were wed. If the bride's hair was scandalous and her gown barely decent, her smiles were as settled as they had once been, and even Miss Helena had to admit that Lady Saville, now Mrs. Norrington, was the perfect bride for the newly promoted Rear Admiral Norrington. It seemed that despite Julia's rather tenuous plans and lack of aboveboard dealings, her dispatch of the French plans on Isla del Muerte had so impressed the Crown that both Norringtons benefited fully.

As for Captain Jack Sparrow, who found himself invited to a polite event and enjoying the notoriety completely, he found the best words to toast the Norringtons, holding a mug of grog to compare with the claret and brandy of the other guests.

"To the Admiral and Lady Julia," he said in a rusty but clear voice. "May they continue as they've begun, and may God help the man who dares cross 'em."

Admiral Norrington flushed, but Lady Julia laughed, her smile as pretty as a picture. Jack chuckled, lifted his mug one last time, and quaffed his rum.

"He's far too sly," Julia said to her husband later. "But I do believe he meant it as a compliment."

And so James Norrington and his Julia were wed, and happily so. If there was often intrigue and difficulty in their marriage, it was honestly dealt with and resolved quickly, and Weatherby Swann's benediction on the union suited it best, and thus the story will close with it.

"You will quarrel," the governor told them, truly happy for both parties, "And I fear your lives will never be dull nor quiet. But the love you bear each other will overcome it, and you will never lack for stories nor affection."

Indeed, they never did.


End file.
